1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information tracking method, an image forming apparatus, an information processing apparatus, and an information tracking program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the development of IT systems, important documents have been widely leaked and the leakage (unauthorized disclosure) of information has become a serious problem. Various measures to prevent the leakage of electronic documents have been taken based on security technologies such as user identification and access control. However it is conceived that measures to prevent the leakage by delivering a paper document are being left behind. As a conventional example to prevent the leakage by delivering a paper document, there is a method of stamping a secret mark on the document. However it has nothing more than a psychological deterrent effect. There is another method of adding information of time and who printed or copied the output document. See, for example, Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3265621.
However, when information is leaked by delivering a paper document, conventional techniques do not provide sufficient measures to accurately determine who leaked the document and who received the document. Without being able to identify who leaked the information, even when the leakage is acknowledged, the leakage of the information may continue. Without being able to identify who receives the leaked information, there remains a problem that further leakage cannot be prevented.